In his four-year campaign against al Qaeda, President Bush has turned the U.S. national security apparatus inward to secretly collect information on American citizens on a scale unmatched since the intelligence reforms of the 1970s.That's right. Here we are, four years after foreign nationals who were in this country illegally managed to illegally hijack planes and (illegally) fly them into buildings, killing thousands, and our own government is treating American citizens as the #1 security risk.

Since October, news accounts have disclosed a burgeoning Pentagon campaign for "detecting, identifying and engaging" internal enemies that included a database with information on peace protesters. A debate has roiled over the FBI's use of national security letters to obtain secret access to the personal records of tens of thousands of Americans. And now come revelations of the National Security Agency's interception of telephone calls and e-mails from the United States -- without notice to the federal court that has held jurisdiction over domestic spying since 1978.
That's right. You damn Americans are un-American!

A high-ranking intelligence official with firsthand knowledge said in an interview yesterday that Vice President Cheney, then-Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet and Michael V. Hayden, then a lieutenant general and director of the National Security Agency, briefed four key members of Congress about the NSA's new domestic surveillance on Oct. 25, 2001, and Nov. 14, 2001, shortly after Bush signed a highly classified directive that eliminated some restrictions on eavesdropping against U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

In describing the briefings, administration officials made clear that Cheney was announcing a decision, not asking permission from Congress. How much the legislators learned is in dispute.So either the Republican-controlled Congress needs protection now, or it just couldn't be trusted then.

The Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, began as a small policy-coordination office but has grown to encompass nine directorates and a staff exceeding 1,000. The agency's Talon database, collecting unconfirmed reports of suspicious activity from military bases and organizations around the country, has included "threat reports" of peaceful civilian protests and demonstrations.
Nixon knew all about this: surveillance of "political enemies."

The Post reported that the FBI has issued tens of thousands of national security letters, extending the bureau's reach as never before into the telephone calls, correspondence and financial lives of ordinary Americans. Most of the U.S. residents and citizens whose records were screened, the FBI acknowledged, were not suspected of wrongdoing.But under Bush, we're now guilty until proven innocent.

But here's the crux of the issue:

Yesterday's acknowledgment of warrantless NSA eavesdropping brought the most forthright statement from the president that his war on terrorism is targeting not only "enemies across the world" but "terrorists here at home." In the "first war of the 21st century," he said, "one of the most critical battlefronts is the home front."

Bush sidestepped some of the implications by citing examples only of foreigners who infiltrated the United States -- Saudi citizens Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar, two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers. But the most fundamental changes undertaken in the Bush administration's surveillance policy are the ones that have broadened the powers of the NSA, FBI and Pentagon to spy on "U.S. persons" -- American citizens, permanent residents and corporations -- on American soil.
Just listen to our president:

In the weeks following the terrorist attacks on our nation, I authorized the National Security Agency, consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, to intercept the international communications of people with known links to Al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations. Before we intercept these communications, the government must have information that establishes a clear link to these terrorist networks.

This is a highly classified program that is crucial to our national security. Its purpose is to detect and prevent terrorist attacks against the United States, our friends and allies.

Yesterday, the existence of this secret program was revealed in media reports after being improperly provided to news organizations. As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not have.

And the unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk. Revealing classified information is illegal, alerts our enemies and endangers our country.
The man pays a lot of lip service to notions of "spreading democracy" around the world, but has little patience or interest in preserving democracy here at home.

Spying on Americans who aren't even suspected of crimes? What's up with that?

It isn't just Michael Schiavo -- even George W. Bush has drawn the wrath of American evangelicals. In February 2002, the president and Laura Bush visited a Shinto shrine in Japan, to which they showed respect with a bow. They were immediately denounced by evangelical organizations for having "worshipped the idol." To listen to the anguished cries of disbelief from Bush's Christian base, you would have thought he had met the same fate as Harrison Ford in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," where Indie was hypnotized by the evil rajah into worshipping the pernicious Hindu idol of the thugees.

The Senateâ€™s top doctor, Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), has many new and unwanted patients. Over the past several days, theyâ€™ve been bombarding Fristâ€™s office with e-mails, describing their ailments, some of them pretty gnarly, and begging for a diagnosis.

"Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him."
-Proverbs 26:12

Who knows how many people went outside at 10 a.m. local time to wave like idiots at the Google satellite as it makes a Keyhole pass over the nation with 3D earth-browsing software. What greater validation of oneself than to be confirmed as actually living on the surface of the Earth!

:lol:

Amanda points out that House Republicans are now eager to pass an unconstitutional bill to revoke citizenship of children of illegal aliens. Presumably, since they're sworn to uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States of America, they've actually read it. Maybe their reading comprenhension skills are impaired. Maybe they also forgot that our Founding Fathers were all illegal aliens and that our country was built on blood-soaked land when we conquered the land from the people who actually were born here to people who were born here. (How many generations go back 10-20,000 years? I think that makes even the DAR a squatters' association.)

:lol:

As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.
-Proverbs 26:11

Senior Republican Tom DeLay, who leads the House of Representatives, attacked the US courts for allowing Mrs Schiavo to die, calling them "out of control".

"We promised the Schindler family that we will not let Terri die in vain," Mr DeLay said.

"We will look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president."

That nose thumbing has become the greatest offense anyone can make. Look what happened to Saddam when he thumbed his nose at Bush! Poor Tom Delay also seems to have not read the Constitution he's sworn to uphold -- especially the part about the judiciary. Maybe he just can't count to three (branches of government).

:lol:

"Better a witty fool than a foolish wit."
-Shakespeare

Wired reports that the Department of Homeland Security thinks that if they don't call the RFID chips in new passports "RFID," then they won't have the security vulnerabilities inherent in the technology:

The U.S. government will not use radio-frequency identification tags in the passports it issues to millions of Americans in the coming years.

Instead, the government will use "contactless chips."

The distinction is part of an effort by the Department of Homeland Security and one of its RFID suppliers, Philips Semiconductors, to brand RFID tags in identification documents as "proximity chips," "contactless chips" or "contactless integrated circuits" -- anything but "RFID."

The Homeland Security Department is playing word games to dodge the privacy debate raging over RFID tags, which will eventually replace bar-code labels on consumer goods, said privacy rights advocates this week.

That is why Homeland Security is engaging in doublespeak, to dupe Americans into accepting RFID tags on their passports, said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program.

"It's a frightening, Orwellian use of the language," said Steinhardt, referring to the "contactless" branding effort. Steinhardt called the RFID tags the Homeland Security Department is using, which have faster processors and more storage capacity than retail tags, "RFID on steroids."

Government agents will use reader devices to track individuals wherever they use their RFID-tagged identification documents, Steinhardt and Tien said.

"They can call it a contactless chip," said Tien, "but it is still RFID. And it shares virtually all of the same vulnerabilities."

Maybe the identity thieves and kidnappers out there won't notice if we don't say "RFID." Maybe if the government spins hard enough, all the bad guys will just assume the chip is hack-proof.

:o

If only these were only jokes.

"I had rather have a fool make me merry, than experience make me sad."
-William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream